THR"Disney's Bold $200M Gamble on 'Mulan' " changes/coronavirus/ Hong Kong protest etc

[Deleted member 45614]

Although everything is working against the film right now, I actually want it to succeed for a number of reasons.

1. It's not a direct shot for shot remake, which a lot of the Live-action remakes are.
2. It's a big budget film with a female director and a great one at that in Niki Caro.
3. It's an all Asian cast, which is rare for a Hollywood film and even rarer for one of this budget.
4. It looks beautifully shot and the action looks great.

All that being said I expect it lose money which kinda sucks as I means we are going to get more cookie cutter adaptations from Disney in the future.

 

[Ehoavash]

Wow if I was the ceo I'd get out fast

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Lol nah Bob iger long since announced he was gonna in 2021

 

[Z-Beat]

Does the chronavirus affect your ability to time travel?

 

[Jarmel]

I'm not going to shed a single tear over this. This was a case of Disney with money signs in their eyes and it sounds like it backfired.

 

[Jon Carter]

They also deleted her kissing scene in The Forbidden Kingdom.

 

[Timeaisis]

Ah, design by committee.

 

[Ehoavash]

I'm not going to shed a single tear over this. This was a case of Disney with money signs in their eyes and it sounds like it backfired.

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[abellwillring]

I think it looks great. My wife and I are really excited to see it. I hope it's a success.

 

[Schreckstoff]

the hong kong comments by the lead actress as well as celebrating, or at the very least courting, chinese nationalism at these times are what make me not want to watch this movie even though it looks like a great adaptation of one of my favourite disney movies.

 

[Khanimus]

Lol nah Bob iger long since announced he was gonna in 2021

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And then he jumped out a year early.

 

[Euphoria]

And then he jumped out a year early.

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I thought they said he was remaining as executive chairman through 2021?

 

[overcast]

200 mil that could have gone to an original movie.

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I mean, for sure. But let's be realistic, disney knows what are more likely hits. It's worked out for them. That's not to say I don't want more original productions, but there are plenty of those without Disney.

 

[Deleted member 45614]

I mean, for sure. But let's be realistic, disney knows what are more likely hits. It's worked out for them. That's not to say I don't want more original productions, but there are plenty of those without Disney.

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Even at Disney they have originals but those tend to be Animated or much lower budget films. Jungle Cruise I guess you could say is kind of original in a way even though it's known IP as there hasn't been a book, film or tv show about it and it has a big budget but those kind of films are very rare from Disney. Even some of their other live action adaptations have failed like John Carter and A Wrinkle in Time.

In fact for other studios original ideas haven't had huge hits for the most part outside of known directors like Tarintino and Nolan as well as smaller comedy and horror breakouts. I think the last $200m~ film not based of a known IP to breakout was probably either Coco or Zootopia, you could argue Bohemian Rhapsody (although that is off a smaller budget, which I suppose is a good thing and kinda has IP as it used Queens music as a seller.) Before that and live action you are probably looking at Avatar and Inception.

 

[RingRang]

Really frustrating to hear to let China have so much say over how it turned out.

 

[Border]

I hope it does well -- it's the only Disney live-action remake that has looked even remotely interetesting so far. I'm so glad that they are cutting the songs and the annoying wisecracking sidekick.

 

[WillyFive]

I would certainly delay it until the epidemic dies down. There's no positive in releasing a China centric movie this summer.

 

[Durden]

Normally don't relish in this kind of stuff but I'd be more than happy if this (highly likely) shit hole remake bombed. At least one of them should.

 

[UltimateHigh]

just watch the cartoon again.

 

[Adventureracing]

Certainly here in Australia the hype for this thing is non existent. I'm still looking forward to it but i wouldn't be surprised if it craters at the BO.

 

[OldGamer]

There was some early positive buzz on this, but I think the lack of music will harm it as well as it's by the numbers nature it is likely to have. The original had a heavy comic tone and I feel this one will be mostly a sting of action setpieces.

Mushu was expendable, personally and I feel a more serious movie about Mulan could be made, though I doubt this is the movie to really do it. Maybe I'm wrong and it's pretty good? I hope so.

Most importantly, is the cricket in the movie? It would be funny if that was somehow kept in even though he was almost cut from the original movie.

 

[Qvoth]

huh it's not releasing in china anytime soon? that'll be a huge blow
not planning to watch this in english so i'll wait for the chinese language version

 

[SilentPanda]

Really frustrating to hear to let China have so much say over how it turned out.

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Its based on a famous and popular chinese historical and folkore figure, it makes no sense not to.

 

[JaseC64]

Kinda pathetic these movies are tailored to the Chinese market and cut shit because of it. I dont feel bad if Disney takes a huge loss on this. They have billions. They'll be ok.

 

[bastardly]

im asian, and love disney, and i couldnt care less about this movie

its dumbo all over again, a remake no one asked for

 

[WascallyWabbit]

I'm not going to see a movie with a CCP bootlicker who shat on HK protesters. Sorry, Disney. Do better with your hiring in the future.

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You should def feel free to not watch the movie cuz of that but I don't know if you can blame Disney for not knowing she was pro-HK police when they cast her in 2017

 

[squeakywheel]

CCP actress. Will avoid just like all the other remixes.

 

[burnsy]

200m is fucking ridiculous. I don't really know the Asia market well though so it may well be a good business decision but I see no value here

 

[Scrooge McDuck]

Normally don't relish in this kind of stuff but I'd be more than happy if this (highly likely) shit hole remake bombed. At least one of them should.

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One of them has, right? Dumbo?

 

[Ducayne]

Surprising reactions in this thread, as this is the only live action disney remake that actually interests me.

 

[entrydenied]

This I don't get. I know China opposes gay interactions, but this one doesn't make sense.

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Maybe it was as badly written as the kiss between Rey and Kylo Ren. The Chinese are used to kissing in period dramas and movies.

 

[Nome]

200m is fucking ridiculous. I don't really know the Asia market well though so it may well be a good business decision but I see no value here

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China loves big, dumb movies. If you ever catch their domestic fare, it's like their entire movie industry just discovered Aftereffects. It's insane how much they blow on spectacle and don't even care about story or plot.

 

[kami_sama]

Mulan is the songs.
Removing mushu is a bad decision, but not as bad as removing the songs.
I can still sing them, they're so damn iconic.
If you add the issue with the actress, you won't catch me watching this movie in a thousand years.

 

[thermopyle]

Meh, my gf says the girlplaying Mulan is a pretty average to shitty actress.

I thought they said he was remaining as executive chairman through 2021?

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Yep. and he's basically giving himself the (un)official chief creative officer role while he potty trains Chapek.

 

[Timbuktu]

I was about to edit that in, but yes, you're right. China seems to just not like them, for whatever reason.

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I don't think that's really true, they have a TV music competition show that's based around Broadway/West End musicals that's quite popular. The audience for it is growing pretty fast at least, most of the time you just have to translate the songs. And Reflections is a pretty popular over there too.

Edit: the $200 million budget is a bit crazy though, when the main star is a relative unknown who isn't that popular in China and you get plenty of decent wuxia movies made for a fraction of that. e.g Crouching Tiger was made for $17 million.

 

[Deleted member 32561]

Love the comments ITT conflating changes to be culturally sensitive with appeasing the Chinese government rather than the Chinese people. At best, at a stretch, you could say splitting Shang into two different characters prevents him from being able to be characterized as maybe, possibly being bi, which yeah, would be a change to appease censors. But honestly I think that change is just to beef up the story more than anything else and Disney definitely (sadly) didn't even intend for Shang to be attracted to "Ping".

All the other changes were for the audience. Far be it from me to defend Disney, but there's literally nothing wrong with trying to court a different group of people than you normally do.

 

[TheUnseenTheUnheard]

What's stopping them from releasing it in theaters in China after this all blows over?

 

[Deleted member 45614]

Kinda pathetic these movies are tailored to the Chinese market and cut shit because of it.

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I think making a film based off a Chinese tale that appeals to Chinese people is a good thing. But then again I also love how much care that Disney put into telling an authentically Polynesian Film in Moana (as a person of Maori descent I was sobbing at how beautiful and true it was to the tales I grew up with as a child.) I'm sure people felt similar about Coco or Black Panther and I for one am glad that Disney is telling stories that are about other cultures whilst still respecting those cultures. So yeah I'm fine with Mulan being tailored to a Chinese audience especially if it turns out as good as some of the other examples I listed.

 

[Deleted member 45614]

What's stopping them from releasing it in theaters in China after this all blows over?

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Nothing, they would need approval from the Chinese government, which should be easy enough seeing as they are in bed together on Shanghai Disney. But I think that a sizeable part of the audience will be lost due to Piracy as well as heightened competition from other films that were due to release during this period.

 

[Deleted member 25702]

What's stopping them from releasing it in theaters in China after this all blows over?

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It will almost certainly be pirated to a damaging degree by the time a staggered Chinese release comes. The article mentions this and the day-and-date release between China and the US would have been a means of stemming that.

 

[show me your skeleton]

This I don't get. I know China opposes gay interactions, but this one doesn't make sense.

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from my understanding, at least historically, china has shied away from romantic scenes, kissing etc.

 

[AusGeno]

How come appealing to Chinese audiences always seems to involve taking content out of a movie and rarely putting anything in.

 

[bxsonic]

I've always believed that this would ultimately bomb in China anyways so it's really unfortunate that they are pandering so hard to China. A faithful adaptation to the Disney classic would have made it way more unique imo.This setting might seem unique for Hollywood but movies with this setting are a dime a dozen in China. I don't see how this can be received as well as those movies in China.

Imo, this would probably be one of their biggest bombs yet.

 

[kami_sama]

How come appealing to Chinese audiences always seems to involve taking content out of a movie and rarely putting anything in.

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Last thing I remember like that was the extra scene Iron Man 3 had.
Iirc Iron Man went to China and met with the president.

 

[Timbuktu]

How come appealing to Chinese audiences always seems to involve taking content out of a movie and rarely putting anything in.

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Scenes added to appease censors are pretty easy to identify and ignore in decent Chinese movies. A lot of times it can be that no one can get away with a crime, so out of nowhere characters get rounded up and arrested at the end of movies (the alternate mainland ending for Infernal Affairs is a case in point).

I've always believed that this would ultimately bomb in China anyways so it's really unfortunate that they are pandering so hard to China. A faithful adaptation to the Disney classic would have made it way more unique imo.This setting might seem unique for Hollywood but movies with this setting are a dime a dozen in China. I don't see how this can be received as well as those movies in China.

Imo, this would probably be one of their biggest bombs yet.

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I think the main problem is really that this should never cost $200 million, definitely not more than Aladdin.

 

[Ehoavash]

What's stopping them from releasing it in theaters in China after this all blows over?

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Piracy Definitely + so many movies will be basically stuck on the back burners that they're gonna have to wait a long ass time to release this, as China likes to prioritize home made movies before American ones too.

 

[bxsonic]

I think the main problem is really that this should never cost $200 million, definitely not more than Aladdin.

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Yeah. That too. Lol.

But I think the pandering to China really disappoints me though. I feel that it ends up diluting the movie and makes it less appealing to fans of the original Disney's Mulan (which I loved).

On the other hand, I also do love movies with historical Chinese setting. Unfortunately, nothing I've seen of this film gives me the confidence that it can do that well also. So in their quest to appease China, I personally think they've made a movie that caters to no one. A shame really. Originally one of my most anticipated live action remake from Disney. But I'll hold final judgment till I watch it.

 

[TheUnseenTheUnheard]

Nothing, they would need approval from the Chinese government, which should be easy enough seeing as they are in bed together on Shanghai Disney. But I think that a sizeable part of the audience will be lost due to Piracy as well as heightened competition from other films that were due to release during this period.

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It will almost certainly be pirated to a damaging degree by the time a staggered Chinese release comes. The article mentions this and the day-and-date release between China and the US would have been a means of stemming that.

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I see guys thanks.

Last thing I remember like that was the extra scene Iron Man 3 had.
Iirc Iron Man went to China and met with the president.

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I'm sorry but that's hilarious.

 

[Mars People]

Disney bowing and scraping to China at every corner is frankly disgusting.
To hell with this crap movie.

 

[Charamiwa]

"At the time, the chinese government came out in various publications supporting the film very strongly," says USC professor Stanley Rosen, who specializes in Chinese politics and society. "There's a real impetus on the part of the Chinese government to make this work. I'm sure the government is going to try to show that the boycott has had no effect.

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So China wants this film to succeeds to prove the Hong Kong boycott doesn't work. I'm not one to wish for the failure of a project but if there ever was one...

 

[SPRidley]

Musicals are rarely popular outside the language they are sung in, for obvious reasons.*

*Opera being the exception, of course.

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Wut
Disney musicals are translated into multiple languages and those versions are mostly loved by the countries that gets them.
This is just about chinese culture and history having little fondness of musicals in general, so they are not interedted in a mulan one, so as disney thought the important market of a chinese character movie would be china, they took out the musical part (that if they still had the musical part they would have localized it in chinese for that version), anything else is tin foil hat.

And thats gonna bite them in the ass in the rest of the world, because people loved the localized versions of their countries of making a man out of you.

And even when they are left in english, mostly for non disney movies, they are really popular also like lalaland for example.
For international viewers is just music, and if it sounds good is aok for them.
Its true that the disney localized ones are usually more remembered with the whole lyric and everthing by the majority of the audience, but both versions are popular for most of the world.